Hawkins was the representative for California’s 29th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1975 to 1990.
He was previously the representative for California’s 21st congressional district as a Democrat from 1963 to 1974.
![Photo of Rep. Augustus “Gus” Hawkins [D-CA29, 1975-1990]](/static/legislator-photos/405236-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Hawkins is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Hawkins sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Hawkins was the primary sponsor of 29 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- H.R. 7 (101st): Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act Amendments of 1990
- H.R. 3910 (101st): 1992 National Assessment of Chapter 1 Act
- H.J.Res. 475 (101st): Designating April 1990 as “National Recycling Month”.
- H.R. 3614 (101st): Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Amendments of 1989
- H.R. 24 (101st): Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 1989
- H.J.Res. 102 (101st): To designate April 1989 as “National Recycling Month”.
- H.R. 4731 (100th): WIN Demonstration Program Extension Act of 1988
Does 29 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Hawkins sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Education (33%) Labor and Employment (23%) Families (10%) Government Operations and Politics (9%) Social Welfare (9%) Science, Technology, Communications (7%) Native Americans (5%) Health (5%)
Recent Bills
Some of Hawkins’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5932 (101st): Educational Equity and Excellence Act of 1990
- H.R. 5806 (101st): Urban Schools of America (USA) Act of 1990
- H.R. 5115 (101st): Equity and Excellence in Education Act of 1990
- H.J.Res. 531 (101st): Designating May 4, 1990, as Department of Education Day.
- H.R. 4379 (101st): Equity and Excellence in Education Implementation Act of 1990
- H.R. 4330 (101st): National Service Act of 1990
- H.R. 4130 (101st): Twenty-First Century Teachers Act
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1963 to Oct 1990, Hawkins missed 2,320 of 11,813 roll call votes, which is 19.6%. This is much worse than the median of 4.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1990. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
- Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
